A resounding victory, pressing the attack

Chapter 58 A resounding victory, pressing the attack

Outside Jinfeng Ridge, corpses lay strewn everywhere.

There were corpses of people from the five major immortal cultivation families, as well as corpses of Qi Yun Alliance cultivators, but most of them were left by the latter.

The great battle had ended, with the five major cultivation families emerging victorious.

However, although they won this battle, it was a Pyrrhic victory!

Of the 173 cultivators from the five major immortal cultivation families who participated in the battle, as many as 35 died on the spot, seven others suffered limb amputations or cripples, and dozens more were injured in various ways.

Even two Foundation Establishment stage cultivators perished, and many others were injured.

"The statistics are in. In this battle, our side killed eleven Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Qi Yun Alliance, severely injured three, killed one hundred and eighty-nine Qi Refining cultivators from the Qi Yun Alliance, and wounded countless others!"

"In addition, most of the spoils of war from the enemies killed in this battle have been taken by our cultivators, with a small portion being taken away by the fleeing enemies."

Inside the Sun family's mountain gate at Jinfeng Ridge, Sun Zhongping, the Sun family patriarch in charge of cleaning up the battlefield and tallying the battle results, hurriedly entered the hall and informed the group of people who were meditating and healing their wounds of the results.

At this moment, the cultivator sitting at the head of the hall had become Zhou Mingde from the Zhou family.

As for Sun Yaowu, the mid-stage Purple Mansion cultivator, he has already returned to Qinglian Temple overnight to seek help from his elders to heal his injuries.

It turns out that in the previous battle, Zhou Mingde gave up his advantage for the sake of the overall situation and went to help Sun Yaowu.

But no one expected that Tang Yuan actually had a secret treasure hidden in his possession: the Yang Fire Thunder Pearl.

Seeing Zhou Mingde come to help Sun Yaowu, Tang Yuan immediately threw the object at Sun Yaowu.

As a result, Sun Yaowu was caught off guard and was seriously injured by the explosion, almost losing his physical body!

After Tang Yuan landed a successful blow, he didn't have the courage to actually kill the core disciple of Qinglian Temple. Instead, he turned his attention to Zhou Mingde, intending to kill him with his sword.

But he underestimated the Zhou family's resources!

At the critical moment, Zhou Mingde also took out an extremely rare [Heavenly Thunder Treasure Scroll] and activated it on the spot, sending it towards him.

That [Heavenly Thunder Treasure Talisman] is a secret talisman created by a Golden Core cultivator who gathers the power of heavenly thunder and seals it with superb talisman-making skills. Its power is comparable to that of a Golden Core cultivator personally taking action.

After being struck by this talisman, Tang Yuan suffered injuries that were no less severe than those in Sun Yaowu.

At that moment, he dared not stay on the battlefield any longer, and immediately used his escape technique to flee the battlefield without a word.

Seeing that Tang Yuan, a late-stage Purple Mansion cultivator, was almost killed on the spot by the [Heavenly Thunder Treasure Scroll], how could the remaining two Qi Yun Alliance vice leaders dare to stay on the battlefield? Who knew if Zhou Mingde had another [Heavenly Thunder Treasure Scroll] in his hand?

Thus, the victory was decided immediately after the two cultivators at the Purple Mansion stage had determined their victor.

Because Zhou Mingde severely injured Tang Yuan, it was only natural that he would now be the leader of the five major cultivation families.

After listening to the words of Sun Zhongping, the head of the Sun family, Zhou Mingde glanced at the cultivators in the hall and slowly said, "Fellow Daoists, although our side suffered considerable losses in this battle, the results were equally brilliant and enormous, a truly great victory!"

"But if you don't kill the snake, you might get bitten in return."

"After this battle, we will have a blood feud with the Qiyun Alliance. If we don't take advantage of Tang Yuan's current severe injuries and eliminate him, the consequences will be unpredictable once he recovers!"

At this point, Zhou Mingde paused slightly, then said with a serious expression, "Therefore, I suggest that our five major families mobilize all their forces and surround their headquarters before those Qi Yun Alliance thieves can react. Once the main force arrives, we can then attack the mountain and break through their defenses, wiping them out in one fell swoop!"

After he finished speaking, no one in the hall responded for a long time.

The cultivators in the hall were well aware of the principle that one cannot kill a snake by striking it.

However, besieging the Qiyun Alliance headquarters and intending to annihilate it in one fell swoop is not an easy task.

Even if they succeed, the casualties among the five major cultivation families will definitely be greater than in the previous battle.

You should know that the cultivators who died in the war were all relatives of the cultivators present!

The deaths of a few dozen people have already caused them great distress; if even more were to die, the family's vitality would be severely damaged.

Even they themselves might not have been able to save their lives at that time.

Therefore, even though they knew that Zhou Mingde was right and that what he said made a lot of sense, none of the cultivators immediately responded.

After a long silence, Wang Guangping, a cultivator from the Wang family's Purple Mansion realm, finally spoke up, saying, "Fellow Daoist Zhou makes a lot of sense. However, I believe that while we can put on a show, we need to carefully consider the actual attack on the mountain and breaking of the formation!"

These words immediately drew echoes of agreement from the cultivators within the hall.

"Yes, yes, Senior Wang is right. It's enough to just put on a show and scare those rogue cultivators. Attacking mountains and breaking formations will result in too many casualties. It's best not to do it if possible!"

"Fellow Daoist Sun is right. Rogue cultivators are easily intimidated. If we make a big show of our power, we might be able to force the Qiyun Alliance to disband on its own!"

"I also believe that if we can avoid attacking the mountain and breaking through the formation, it's best not to do such a thing!"

Apart from the two Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Zhou family who remained silent, most of the other Foundation Establishment cultivators from various families spoke up in agreement with Wang Guangping's words, all expressing their desire to avoid another hard-fought battle.

It's not that they're like this, nor is it that they lack foresight.

The reality is that the reason they started this war with the Qiyun Alliance was simply because the Qiyun Alliance's arrogant attitude made them feel that their status had been challenged, so they prepared to teach the Qiyun Alliance a lesson.

Now, after a major battle, they have proven their strength and status to the entire cultivation world of Lanzhou with a resounding victory.

It can be said that the objective of starting the war has been achieved.

Under these circumstances, why would they be willing to risk a large number of deaths to fight the Qi Yun Alliance to the death?

Faced with this overwhelming opposition, Zhou Mingde felt somewhat regretful, but he would not truly ignore the opinions of the majority.

He immediately nodded in agreement, saying, "Since all of you fellow Daoists believe that the current situation is not suitable for another hard battle to attack the mountain and break through the formation, let's surround it first and create a show of force!"

After meditating and resting for a while to recover their magical power, the group of experts from the five major immortal cultivation families on the Sun family side flew together to the headquarters of the Qiyun Alliance.

At the same time, the cultivators remaining in the five major cultivation families, who had quickly received the news, also sent people with some Qi Refining stage cultivators to rush to the Qi Yun Alliance headquarters, creating the impression that they really wanted to destroy the Qi Yun Alliance.

This momentum has left those forces that have been closely monitoring both sides in a state of surprise and uncertainty, unsure whether they are serious.

The two vice leaders of the Qiyun Alliance, who had only recently returned to the Qiyun Alliance headquarters and hadn't even had a chance to sit down properly, were immediately on edge, as restless as ants on a hot pan.

"What do we do? The alliance leader isn't here, what should we do?"

Vice Alliance Leader Wei Feng muttered to himself with a grim expression.

Although no names were mentioned, there were only him and another vice-alliance leader, Zhang Zixuan, in the room, so he was obviously asking the other party a question.

But Zhang Zixuan was just as anxious as he was, so he couldn't answer that question.

He could only whisper, "Let's wait a bit. Although the Alliance Leader isn't here, we've already notified him using a long-distance communication talisman. Even if he's in seclusion, he wouldn't completely ignore a long-distance communication talisman!"

Upon hearing this, Wei Feng's mouth moved as if he wanted to say something, but he held back.

In the end, all he could do was sigh and say, "Alas! That's all we can do!"

A dignified cultivator at the Purple Mansion stage can only sigh and lament now.

Zhou Chun, who was in the market, quickly received news of Qi Yun Alliance's crushing defeat and the siege of its mountain gate.

As the saying goes, good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels a thousand miles.

The Qi Yun Alliance rose so rapidly in less than twenty years that it must have offended and harmed countless people.

Many people may not have the ability to retaliate against them, but it is still easy for them to spread the news after seeing them suffer a setback.

Moreover, the five major cultivation families themselves are also making efforts to publicize the outcome of the battle at Golden Maple Ridge and the fact that the Qiyun Alliance's mountain gate was besieged.

"Even the mountain gate is surrounded. It seems that even if the Qiyun Alliance isn't wiped out this time, its momentum will be greatly diminished, and it will definitely have to lie low and endure for a while!"

"The five great cultivation families truly live up to their long-standing traditions; their foundation is far beyond what nouveau riche like the Qi Yun Alliance can match!"

Inside the Spirit Beast Pavilion, Zhou Chun synthesized the information he had gathered from various sources and made his own judgment.

Then he remembered another matter that was currently being hotly discussed in the market, namely, the fact that Zhou Daoyi, the patriarch of the Zhou family, used a dragon to kill three Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Qiyun Alliance.

Zhou Chun knew, of course, that Zhou Daoyi had not tamed any dragons, but only a blue-green python.

Therefore, the dragon mentioned in that message was most likely transformed from a Azure Cloud Python, and it was probably temporarily catalyzed using some secret technique, rather than truly evolving into a dragon.

"Since the clan leader's Azure Cloud Python can temporarily transform into a dragon using a secret technique, my Silver Lightning Python should be able to do the same once it reaches the second tier, right?"

"Did the Third Elder tell me to keep an eye out for spiritual items like Dragon Blood Grass and Dragon Blood Stone because he knew the family possessed such secret techniques, and that's why he wanted me to prepare in advance?"

Zhou Chun felt that this was probably the case.

Then his heart suddenly burned with passion.

Evolving the Silver Lightning Python into a Flood Dragon is extremely difficult.

However, if one could temporarily transform into a dragon and master some of its supernatural powers, that would be an extremely impressive ability.

This can be seen from the fact that Zhou Daoyi, who was only at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, was able to kill a late-Foundation Establishment cultivator and two other Foundation Establishment cultivators.

If Zhou Chun can master this secret technique in the future, his strength will only be greater than Zhou Daoyi's after he successfully establishes his foundation.

After all, the lightning spells mastered by the Silver Lightning Python are far more powerful than the wind spells of the Azure Cloud Python!

Forget it, let's leave the title as it is and not change it. The editor said that changing the title now might cause misunderstandings among readers who have already added the book to their collections, and they might leave. So, let's not change it!

(End of this chapter)